His big mouth may grab their attention, but the UK host's judgmental, sneering attitude may not be to Americans' tastes
It's not pantomime season for another couple of months ? but US viewers might like to get their boos and hisses ready for the all-new American Jeremy Kyle Show as Britain's chief proponent of judgmental putdowns and sneering rejoinders heads to New York to yell at the Yanks.
Kyle's new show begins today ? bring your family squabbles, infidelities and wayward teens to his TV studio, America, and he'll tell you what a disgrace you are and send you packing. (He'll know whether you've been bad or good, of course, thanks to some supposedly fool-proof lie detector tests.) Judging from early clips of this latest show, Kyle appears to be laying on the righteous indignation more thickly than ever before in an attempt to be the new Mr Nasty of US television.
You'd be forgiven for thinking that there's nothing American viewers seem to love more than a stern English person telling them off. Simon Cowell and Ann Robinson made it big in the US (with American Idol and The Weakest Link respectively) thanks to their exaggerated villainy, always billed as just simple honesty. And this is Kyle's modus operandi too: if you don't like what I'm saying, you just can't handle the truth. Even his autobiography is entitled I'm Only Being Honest.
But Kyle isn't just "honest". He's out-and-out rude, often abusive and showboats his moral superiority like he was born to be above all of this. "Get off my stage," he hollers at a couple who have both failed lie detector tests over their alleged infidelities. "Keep on walking," he bellows at a young man addicted to heroin and unable kick the habit.
The US does already have a glut of talkshow hosts including Montel Williams, Rikki Lake and Sally Jesse Raphael but only Judge Judy really reaches Kyle levels of scorn for her guests. The rest combine tough talking with sympathy and tissues. A British judge described the UK show as "a human form of bear-bating" when sentencing one of the show's participants for head-butting another guest in the studio. Whereas other talkshow hosts offer encouragement along with their tough love, Kyle often just barks his disgust and orders the guests to leave.
He refers continually to his own status as a father when dispensing his holier-than-thou pronouncements but he has admitted that a gambling addiction helped to destroy his first marriage.
Kyle brought his show to British screens in 2005, having previously worked as a radio DJ and agony uncle, and instantly gained a reputation for this no-nonsense approach. But is he really saying what we, the audience, is thinking? There's an element of schadenfreude in watching other people's mistakes but his attitude towards his "guests" is so judgmental, so unyieldingly harsh, it's a wonder he doesn't need 24-hour security. Is his apparent lack of compassion and his willingness to goad participants into anger and sometimes violence what we really want to see?
It will be interesting to find out if America falls for TV's new Mr Mean or finds him as objectionable and offputting as many of us do in the UK. I'd love to hear their thoughts.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/sep/19/jeremy-kyle-talkshow-us
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